I am currently using an old laptop (circa 2015) with a 250GB SSD in it, and 4GB of RAM. It runs Fedora 39 Server, and only hosts a Jellyfin instance through Docker right now (though I want to use Nextcloud later too). There is only 15GB of storage left on it, and the CPU is constantly overloaded (due to forced transcoding). I happen to have a lot of 500GB 3.5" HDDs laying around, and I want to use them in RAID 5. What hardware would be good for having 4 HDDs, and running Jellyfin and Nextcloud in Docker? I’m okay with either having just a 4-bay NAS (as long as it can handle transcoding (MKV 480p -> MP4)), or having a 4-bay NAS and a server/computer/NUC. I only have a budget of CAD$900 (USD$658 as of writing), but I am willing to go to CAD$1000 if absolutely necessary.
My go to for home servers for like 20 years has been used dell optiplexes. They are quite reliable, easy to find, pretty cheap, come in a few different standard physical sizes, and last a long time. The one thing they could do better at is energy efficiency. I spent a total of US $450 on the last two that I bought. I added an LSI HBA to one and it runs 4 HDDs in raidz1.
